On July 22, 2003, U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-
of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, received a hero’s welcome when she returns to her hometown of Palestine, West
Virginia.

The story of the 19-year-old supply clerk, who was captured by 
Iraqi forces in March 2003, gripped America; however, it was
later revealed that some details of Lynch’s dramatic capture
and rescue might have been exaggerated.

Jessica Lynch in the hospital.

On July 21, 1861, in the first major land battle of the Civil War,
a large Union force under General Irvin McDowell is routed by
a Confederate army under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard.

Irvin McDowell
(October 15, 1818 – May 4, 1885)

Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard
(May 28, 1818 – February 20, 1893)

CARLATA BRADLEY

A Medal of Honor awarded to a Civil War general was
found inside a book at a church fundraising sale.

On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed into
law a measure calling for the awarding of a U.S. Army Medal
of Honor, in the name of Congress, “to such noncommissioned
officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by
their gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities during
the present insurrection.”

Abraham Lincoln
(February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)

    
    
    
    
   
In 1947 at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, General Dwight
D. Eisenhower commissioned Florence Blanchfield to the
the regular U.S. Army, making her the first woman in the
country’s history to receive a commission.

Florence Aby Blanchfield (April 1, 1884 – May 12, 1971)